As a kind of companion to our book review episode from last week, Fable and the Verbivore discuss literary criticism and grapple with how we want to approach reviewing other author's works.

We want to treat the stories and books we review with the utmost respect for the creator and look at the work from the point of view of artist intention, while also analyzing what we enjoyed and what personally worked and didn't work for us while we interacted with the story.

We are still working to find our balance between the analytical and supportive aspects of reviewing someone else's words and know that this will be an ongoing discussion. We hope you enjoy this impromptu conversation of both how we want to support other writers and appreciate what it is they are creating, while also critically thinking about what their work means to us.

We are grateful to you, our listeners, and would love to hear your thoughts on criticism and critical reviews! And keep daring greatly!

Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Fable and the Verbivore are both exploring classes from authors and artists using annual passes on MasterClass Online Class. The conversation starts out with Laura talked about a comment made by non-fiction writer Malcolm Gladwell in his class videos about his experience with critical reviews of his work.

The Daring Greatly quote read by the Verbivore and made by Theodore Roosevelt is the touchstone for author Brene Brown’s (PhD, LMSW) book by the same name. This book is a research backed study that explores how having the bravery to be vulnerable in our everyday lives opens the doors to creativity and opportunity. Here is the full quote by Theodore Roosevelt:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Brene Brown also has Ted Talks on the Power of Vulnerability and the Price of Invulnerability, as well as a Netflix special titled Brene Brown: The Call to Courage which further explore these themes of creativity and vulnerabilty.

Fable discusses rising to the level of expectations that are set for us, from a Psychological perspective. This is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Here is the definition:

Self-fulfilling prophecy refers to the socio-psychological phenomenon of someone "predicting" or expecting something, and this “prediction” or expectation comes true simply because one believes it will.

Books Mentioned:

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)